Meet the Maker: 2023 Round Up!
What a fantastic array of makers we've had featured on our Meet the Maker blog this year. We've put together a round up for you with all of the wonderful advice our makers have given for creatives at any stage of their creative practice.
Pop your feet up, grab yourself a nice festive beverage and get inspired for the new year ahead!
"Stay creative, try lots of different things, keep your eyes and ears open. Keep at it!"
"For anyone starting out as a printmaker I would advise reaching out to those who inspire you. I was helped by many engravers and lino artists who were so generous with their advice and knowledge. Also draw. Go out and draw and take those drawings back to the studio. Photographs are useful too but your own unique, way of mark making will appear when drawing on location. Experiment, make mistakes and enjoy the process."
"Keep experimenting, and try something new, especially if it seems unlikely to succeed."
"Get feedback on your products from friends and family and even people you don’t know, but ultimately do what you love. Stay true to yourself. Printmaking will take you on the most amazing journey."
"Put in the work - nothing about printmaking is easy - its a challenge and there is so much to learn but that's what makes it so much fun! Go on as many courses as you can to see how other artists work and experience different studio set ups. DRAW and draw a lot, doesn't matter if your good or you like the drawings it's important training for your eye, think of it like the run you should be going on or the squats you should do to keep strong."
"Have fun. Don’t worry too much in the early days about developing a style, just put in the hard yards and your style will make itself known and will evolve. Learn from others but don’t worry too much about “the rules” as there really aren’t any."
"Go for it! Explore, experiment and enjoy the process!"
"If you haven’t tried printmaking, give it a go and you might just become addicted. Printmaking has been such a great way for me to learn to be more decisive and embrace the beauty of the unintended, not just in art but life more generally!"
"Just keep showing up."
Nick Morley
"Keep at it. Practice is so important. You can only develop as an artist by regular practice. Make lots of bad work.
Experiment. Make mistakes. This is the best way to discover new ways to do things and to develop strong ideas. Try not to be precious about what you make.
Travel, have fun, play, discover. That sounds like a cheesy tagline for a multinational corporation, doesn’t it? But if you don’t feed your soul how can you make good art? It doesn’t matter what you’re into, delve deeply into it."
"Apply for everything. I know it’s expensive, but entering competitions & open calls is such a good way to get exhibited and to make connections and be inspired. Don’t be afraid to get yourself out there and lastly, support and promote one another’s work!"
"An inspiration wall is a great place to start, and taking part in printmaking courses at an open-access print studio is great for gaining ideas and experience. Taking part in Instagram-based print challenges and fundraisers, such as the Pressing Matters insert, Handprinted Collective and One of Many Postcard from John Pedder, is a good way to meet other printmakers too."
"Show up every day and do something that progresses your creative practice forward. Even if it’s just one task, or only 20 minutes that you can spare. Do it every day, build a habit, and those small steps you take will start to feel like a sprint!
Also, if you have access to printmaking facilities, either at your school, university or local area - please use them! It’s the best way to meet other creatives, bounce ideas around, get some feedback and find the support you need as a creative."
"Enjoy the process of making and creating, rather than putting all your focus on the end result. To start with, keep it simple. Linocut is a very forgiving medium. It sounds odd but I don’t think you have to be very good at drawing. Often the people that come to my lino print workshops that say they can’t draw, create the most successful prints."
"To slightly paraphrase the saxophonist John Coltrane: Start in the middle."
"Some advice I was given early in my art career when I was sometimes struggling and tempted to give up on something was “make it work” or if I am about to start on something “keep it simple”. I have to remind myself often of these and I will pass the same advice on. And one I tell others (and myself) when they’re stuck is just to “do it” or “go for it” or “don’t give up”."
"My advice for anybody who would like to have a go at Printmaking is to just go for it, you’ll surprise yourself."
"Advice I would give to printmakers or others who want to try printmaking, is to experiment a lot, embrace the mistakes, it's about learning and don't be afraid to mix it up, prints don't have to be made using one technique."
"Try to be born to rich parents. And if that doesn’t quite work out then…just make work! Draw, print or paint but don’t wait for an idea to strike. I’ve wasted time waiting to have enough time or space or money to get started but you just have to make things however and whenever you can and the process will reveal what is important and exciting and fascinating to you."
"Try to absorb as diverse a range of influences as possible, as then your work will develop a style entirely of its own."
"My advice would be to plan less and intuit more. We get so stuck planning things out sometimes that we never even get to starting a project! Not to mention the fact that it can really suck the joy out of the process. I have talked about this a lot on my Instagram - it’s so important to remain in love with the process, and planning too meticulously can really dull the joy and discovery of the magical printing process."
"Printmaking is full of possibilities; enjoy the process and keep making - no matter what! Do that thing you are scared to do; that is what you need to get started."
A big thank you to all of the makers that have taken part in our Meet the Maker feature this year! We hope that you have been as inspired by their work as we have.
Here's to 2024 and even more printmaking goodness!